Campus Crimes Drop Slightly in '93

The number of serious crimes at MIT dropped slightly between January and
June, according to a midyear report released by the Campus Police.

The report for January to June 1993 also indicates that theft continues to
be the most frequent campus crime and that the Safe Ride service is serving
more students than ever.

"It's difficult to get too deep into trends at this halfway point, but so
far the situation is relatively good coming off of the serious crimes that
followed the tragic murder last year around this time," said Anne P.
Glavin, chief of Campus Police.

Over the six-month period, the Campus Police received 1,043 complaints --
about 100 more than the same six-month period in 1992. This number included
eight serious crimes: one assault with dangerous weapon, five assault and
battery complaints, and two assault and battery complaints reported by
police officers.

The figure of eight serious crimes "reflects crimes which took place on MIT
property and not crimes involving members of the MIT community that
occurred adjacent to MIT," according to the report. Memorial Drive is
actually outside the jurisdiction of the Campus Police, though "MIT Police
officers may have been involved in the police response to the scene,"
according to the report.

The Campus Police made 41 arrests in this time period, matching the number
from 1992.

Another fairly frequent complaint was obscene and annoying phone calls,
reported by 44 students. The midyear report states that there were seven
harassment complaints, and there was one sexual harassment complaint.

Theft is most prevalent crime

Larceny was still the most reported crime, with Glavin calling it "the
crime on this campus." So far this year, about $200,000 worth of property
hasbeen reported stolen, a good part of it coming from stolen
office equipment, especially computers.

Glavin stressed that when students or people in offices plan on purchasing
computers or office equipment, "they should think about a security system
along with the purchase."

Motor vehicle thefts were down somewhat from last year, but according to
Glavin, automobile theft "is still a major concern to the community."

"We are looking to get parking facilities more secure," she said. "We are
installing a card-key system at Westgate [Lot] that works with the new
electronic cards that students will be using for their dorms." The commuter
lot on Vassar Street is the next lot slated for installation of the
electronic card-key system.

According to the compiled statistics, more students than ever are using the
Safe Ride shuttle service. Glavin said, "Safe Ride has always gone up in
ridership since day one." During the first six months of 1993, 76,000
people used Safe Ride, up from 56,000 in all of 1992, she said.

It exploded. Safe Ride is essentially a victim of its own success,"
Glavin said. All of the Safe Ride vans have been following an exact
schedule since the beginning of this school year. But "keeping a timed
schedule gets difficult with more and more riders," Glavin said.

While the new timed schedule system and additional vans have improved the
shuttle service, Glavin said that in order "for Safe Ride to grow, we'll
have to look at alternative systems. It's a wonderful system, but there's a
limit. We have reached the limit as to what we can handle as a
department."

Also noted in the half-year report, the Campus Police handled 1,210
emergency medical services, which included medical emergencies, ambulance
transfers, and medical shuttles. This doubled from 1992's figure of
632.